George’s Marvellous Medicine was just the tonic for family fun

The fizzing tale that is Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine was brought brilliantly to life on stage at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.

The story revolves around a young boy who lives on a farm and comes up with an ingenious way of dealing with his cantankerous gran — a potion that will alter her in a fantastic way.

So George, played brilliantly by Ed Thorpe, sets about taking household items from lipstick to shoe polish, and combining them with farm favourites including pig pills.

His brew, brought to the boil with a magical rhyme, is then spoonfed to the gran, with spectacular results as she grows and breaks through the roof.

The potion is seen as the answer to the family’s prayers by dad played by Richard Mullins.

But after feeding it to the farm animals that balloon in size, when the medicine runs out they can’t quite perfect the recipe. So much so it ends up shrinking those who consume it. But this fast-paced show certainly didn’t shrink. It was a larger-than-life riot for the whole family that sparkled on the stage.